LOS ANGELES — On April 8, 2016, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts pulled Ross Stripling after 7.1 no-hit innings against the Giants in his debut. The Giants went on to come back in that game to win, 3-2 in extra innings.
Roberts hasn’t changed in style. On Friday, he and the Dodgers let history repeat itself.
In the past few weeks, Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks carried a no-hitter into the eighth, the Rockies’ Connor Seabold didn’t allow a hit through five, and San Francisco’s offense again went through an extended silent spell in Dodger Stadium, going hitless for six innings against Emmet Sheehan.
Sheehan had never pitched above Double-A before his spotless debut. But Roberts pulled him after 89 pitches and six innings. The Boston College product handed his bullpen a 4-0 lead.
But against the Dodgers bullpen, that ranks 28th in ERA this season, San Francisco stormed back.
“I thought about it when the starter came out,” shortstop Brandon Crawford said postgame when asked if Friday reminded him of the Stripling game. “I definitely thought about it.”
After failing to knock out Sheehan, Wilmer Flores homered and the Giants paper-cutted the Dodgers with timely hitting to concoct a comeback. Two runs in the seventh and three more in the eighth on five hits gave the Giants (37-32), who survived the Dodgers’ ninth-inning counterattack with two runs in the 11th — a surge powered by the Rookies and the Vet.
With the 7-5 extra-innings victory, the Giants have won five straight. After three hours and thirty-one minutes of chaotic, strange, thrilling baseball, SF now trails the Dodgers by a game for second place in the National League West.
The Dodgers have had holes in their rotation due to injuries all year, just like the Giants have been dealing with for weeks. For Friday’s game, they called up Sheehan, the 23-year-old rookie who effectively leapfrogged Triple-A.
Twice this year in Double-A, Sheehan has held opponents to no hits, albeit in a maximum of five innings. Ranked 13th among Dodgers prospects, the pitcher posted a 1.86 ERA.
Sheehan limited the Giants to mostly flyouts. His fastball that tops out at 98 mph and jumps on hitters due to his deceptive delivery consistently crossed the top of the zone. Seven of the first 15 outs he recorded came through the air. Some of which were well-struck.
Brandon Crawford flew out 392 feet to the center field wall. Luis Matos, in his first game at Dodger Stadium, hit two balls over 345 feet. LaMonte Wade Jr. lined a ball to the right-center gap, but Mookie Betts tracked it.
Still, Sheehan’s no-hitter continued through the sixth. He got some help from his defense, too, as no-hit bids tend to.
Freddie Freeman leaned into the net and fell into the stands to catch a pop up. Miguel Rojas made a fantastic spinning play in deep short. To end the sixth, Betts robbed Joc Pederson of a surefire double in right field. His diving catch prevented Pederson’s barrel of 115.0 mph from dropping.
By then, the Dodgers had taken a 4-0 lead, all of which came in the sixth inning that included premature strobe lights. It wouldn’t hold, though, and the late-innings drama to come made Sheehan’s spotless debut a footnote.
After 89 pitches and six no-hit innings, Sheehan ceded to Brusdar Graterol.
Since May 15, the Giants’ bullpen has a 1.46 ERA. That’s the best mark in baseball in a stretch in which the Giants have the best record in MLB. In that same span, Dodgers relievers rank last (5.59).
Against Graterol, Thairo Estrada instantly ended LA’s no-hit bid with a leadoff single. Then Wilmer Flores, two pitches after fouling a pitch off a pitch and needing medical attention, halved the Dodgers’ lead with a two-run homer.
It was “definitely” the most painful home run trot of Flores’ career, he said.
The next inning, the Giants rallied for three more — this time against left-handed reliever Victor González and righty Tayler Scott.
Austin Slater, pinch-hitting for the platoon advantage, sprayed a single into right field before Joc Pederson, in a left-on-left matchup, squeezed an RBI single through. Scott replaced González, only to allow the game-tying sacrifice fly on his first pitch.
Casey Schmitt legged out an infield single to deep shortstop to drive in the go-ahead run.
That gave Doval, who has been nearly unhittable this season, a familiar one-run lead in the ninth. But a trio of singles stung the closer for the game-tying run. Before Friday, the only run Doval had ever allowed to the Dodgers came in the 2021 NLDS. Perhaps sensing how tough Doval is, the Dodger Stadium crowd erupted.
Bailey cut down Betts trying to steal third and Doval fanned JD Martinez to send the game into extras. Both teams went scoreless in the 10th, with Taylor Rogers representing the seventh pitcher to take the mound for the Giants on the night.
Bailey ended the 10th with a pop-up, meaning he was the automatic runner at second for the 11th. There, he took third by tagging up, just barely beating James Outman’s throw from center field. Matos drew his third walk of the night.
The rookies set the table for the vet. Crawford, who was 0-for-4 on the night, quieted the Dodger Stadium crowd with a go-ahead single. Then some fans filed out after Matos scored on Slater’s third single of the game. They weren’t there to see a chaotic base running miscue that ended up in an out and Betts reaching third on a pop-up that landed 47 feet from home.
On that play, Schmitt dropped the routine ball and Jakob Junis sailed a throw to first, nearly costing the Giants the game. Six different Giants touched the ball on the play that eventually amounted, somehow, to no runs.
“I was just so shocked that I did it,” Junis said of throwing the ball into the outfield. “And dumbfounded at what was transpiring. I didn’t even know what was happening.”
But after all the commotion, Junis iced it by striking out Freeman.
None of Schmitt, Matos or Bailey were with the Giants for the first Dodgers series of the season, making this their introduction to the rivalry. It was quite an eclectic first taste.
And Stripling, now a Giant, might have a new kindred spirit in Sheehan after all that.